Factors Influencing Senior High School Students’ Environmental Knowledge

Abstract

The current environmental crisis is the result of human mis-perceptions to the environment. The most important way to educate people about environmental issues is through environmental education. Only individual who has the environmental literacy will contribute in handling environmental problems. One component of environmental literacy is environmental knowledge. Environmental knowledge is formed by many factors, both internal and external factors. This paper explains the relationship between students’ environmental knowledge to gender, duration of environmental education, and parent’s education background. The survey was conducted using “Environmental Biology Cognitive Ability Assessment Instrument” to senior high school science program students (N = 192). It was found that duration of environmental education correlated with environmental knowledge. However, there is no difference between gender and parent’s education background. The learning duration shows the amount of delivered materials. Results suggest that to improve environmental knowledge can be through learning in school by adding learning materials.